I set the temperature and timing on Friday night 9pm and woke up on Sunday morning 9am to become the proud owner of 2 slabs of Sous Vide Pork Belly.

Here's what I did:

Friday morning: Rubbed salt all over the meat and left in the fridge
Friday evening: Vacuum seal meat with marinade of apple cider vinegar, salt, sugar, mirin. Place in SV for the next 36 hours
Sunday morning: Remove meat from SV, kept in fridge under heavy weight overnight
Monday evening: Remove from fridge, pan sear few minutes to get crispy skin and serve for dinner.

Verdict:
1. You don't need patience even if it's 36 hours. Just plonk your meat in and forget all about it.
2. SV is interesting as you can cook your food in a vacuum and chill or freeze it until the day of your party, and just finish off with a 5-minute pan-sear to serve. I've been told many fine dining restaurants do that.
3. The SV machine is low maintenance - a tub of water to fill, then throw and just wipe dry to clean.
4. No real culinary skills needed. Anyone who can set the temperature and timing can SV.

Hi Trish, you can just use a ziploc bag and push out as much air as you can before clicking the final zip lock. And yes, a heavy cast iron pot or slow cooker could work, just make sure to have an accurate thermometer to keep monitoring the temperature. If it gets below the desired temperature, add hot water. If it gets too hot, add ice. You can just regulate it manually. It can work if the SV is only for an hour or 2. There's no one you want to be standing next to it for a 36-hour recipe like this one!

Singapore has so many more options of coware to choose from. I bought my pressure cooker with inner stainless steel pot from takashimaya,mabsolutely love it, ut cant find any in the whole of malaysia. I am trying very hard to resist the singapore sale aaargh.

SV meat tends to be softer and more moist than panfried. SV is low heat, long cooking time to slowly break down the tissues and muscles in the meat. Panfried is high heat, short cooking time. But both are just as delicious, yum yum!

Thanks! We cooked a couple of things in it over the Christmas break and have been really impressed so far- ropey old French bavette steaks were amazing...

Ok, so 60 degrees for 36 hours...it seems such a crazy low temp for pork, but I know I just need to man-up, get over my preconceptions and put my faith in the Sous Vide! Will give it a go - thanks for the advice!

Hi Andy, thanks, and great job to you too! Hmm...I'm kicking myself here for not providing the link to the original Heston recipe and I can't seem to find it now. The marinade quantities are not accurate, and you can't go too wrong. It's like making a salad dressing, I suppose. So sorry, I honestly cannot recall how much of each I use. Anyway, when such things happen, I usually put more of what I like, and taste the marinade before using it. All the best, and would you post a picture of your final product here www.facebook.com/extravirginchef - that would be so cool! Cheers.